One of the biggest selling points of the first Ni No Kuni was the involvement of Studio Ghibli. For the sequel, however, the famed anime studio’s name is nowhere to be found.
Level-5 and Akihiro Hino are back, as is composer Joe Hisaishi, who did the sequel’s score. Yoshiyuki Momose, who did key animation on the Ghibli movies Porco Rosso and Spirited Away, also returns, doing Ni No Kuni II’s character design. He, however, does not work for Studio Ghibli and established his own studio in 2005.
While at a roundtable in Tokyo at Namco Bandai, I asked producer Shin Noda why Studio Ghibli’s name was not on this project. It’s noticeable because Level-5 head Akihiro Hino seemed keen to make more Studio Ghibli games.
